Motivations of a Desparate Heart
by Yaoi Huntress Earth
Summary: Loneliness can make us do some pretty crazy stuff, but sometimes it turns out for the better. Too bad Phoenix is going to learn this the hard way with one of his childhood friends.
1. Chapter 1

NOTE: This story takes place after PW:Justice for All and contains mild spoilers for the first case in part 3. This fic is from a completely different universe than my Turnabout Confessions series.

Larry Butz was born with a "Kick Me" sign on his ass that only women could see. It should have been another better-to-have-loved-and-lost-then-never-loved-at-all relationship, but not this time. Kaley was supposed to be different. She was cute, perky, and even treated him to dinner every now and then. It was the best four months he had ever had with a woman and all he had to do in return was give her and all 100 of her ceramic kitty-cats a place to live and respect her decision to stay pure on her wedding day. Yep, those were wonderful times. So wonderful that it convinced Cupid to strike an arrow through Larry's head and drive him to propose to her when they had their weekly midnight dinner at Denny's. That was until he saw Kaley's car in the parking lot with her jumping on some guy's cock like a pogo stick. At least that's what Phoenix understood when Larry called him during his lunch break.

"Phoenix. I need your help."

"Ok, who dumped you this time." Phoenix laughed good-natured-ly.

"Come on, I'm serious here." Larry's voice was getting more and more frantic by the second. "Kaley's going to kill me."

"Calm down, Larry. What happened?"

"You remember how she redecorated my apartment with all those stupid ceramic cats of hers?" 

"And Maya dubbed it, "The Kitty-Witty Palace"." Looking back at it, Phoenix could almost find some humor with how his assistant was fawning over them when they came to visit. They weren't even those nice, expensive ones you saw in the Good Housekeeping ads, but cutesy nightmares plundered from the darkest corners of every third-rate rummage sale Kaley could get find.

Maya's ears perked up. "The Kitty-Witty Palace? Ask him how it's doing." 

"Let's just say that it's now dutsy-wusty."

"Just tell her it was an accident, I'm sure she'll understand." 

"Does smashing them with an aluminum baseball bat because you found out she was screwing some guy count as an accident?"

"In your case, no..." Kaley's high-pitched scream of pure horror could be heard through the entire office.

"Kaley, honey." Larry slowly backed away, still holding the phone with one hand and trying to hide the bat with the other. "I'm just as surprised as you are. Damn invisible Gnomes." Her only answer was a swift blow to the side of Larry's head.


	2. Chapter 2

"I'm sorry I could help you with the case." Phoenix said immediately after trial was over.

"Eh, don't worry about it." Larry sighed as he pulled out a pen and wrote out a 150 dollar check to Kaley. At least it beat the other option of community service in the form of gluing those monstrosities back together. Kaley thanked him, took the check, and ran off with her new boyfriend.

"You want a ride home?"

"You finally got your driver's license?"

Phoenix's face turned a little red as he held up his bus pass. "Not really."

Unlike every other time he was dumped, Larry wasn't going on and on about how he was going to bounce back because there were other fish in the sea and by the end of the week another girl would capture his heart and later dump him. But this was almost disturbing; Larry had hardly made a peep during the entire ride. Sure he'd gotten depressed before, but there was always that spark of passion underneath. This was more of a dull, emotionless quiet that Phoenix never thought his friend was capable of.

"Thanks." Larry arose from his seat, surprised to see his Phoenix raising up to join him. "I'll be fine; you don't have to come along."

"I insist." Larry simply shrugged his shoulders and allowed his friend to follow him. Phoenix couldn't help the painful churning in his stomach. He was a hundred percent sure that Larry wouldn't kill himself, but then again, he never seen him this down before. Other than the large cardboard box filled with ceramic kitty parts, his apartment was no different then the last time Phoenix was there; it did the lawyer's heart good (no obvious signs of mental breakdown or anything). That familiar paternal instinct started to kick in again when Larry slammed the door shut and plopped down on his couch.

"You sure seem upset." A memory of a seminar on communicating better with others that he took in college with his old girlfriend, Chinami, came back to him. As stupid as the whole repeating the person's feelings back to them method seemed at the time, maybe this was his mind's way of telling him how to handle the situation.

"No, I'm fucking ecstatic." Or maybe not. On the bright side, there was a least some emotion coming back into his voice. "What am I doing wrong? I never hit or insulted any of them, I'm a one-woman man, I pay for everything," He sighed. "Oh God, don't tell me I'm going to become one of those losers who won't shut-up about what "nice guys" they are when they're really just a bunch of obnoxious pricks."

"Of course not." Phoenix joined him on the couch. "Those guys are never getting laid. At least you have..." The ashamed look on Larry's face stopped him in his tracks. "Oh sorry."

"It's ok." For some reason Phoenix couldn't help feeling guilty for losing his to Chinami. Not like lying about it would do any good anyway no matter how much pain he hoped it would lift off his friend's shoulders. "Might as well get use to it, I guess. Just savor the one blowjob I got from Cindy and go on with life."

"Don't say that." He firmly clasped his hand on Larry's shoulder just in case he tried to leave. "Forget about them. Any girl would be lucky to you. I know I'd be." It was just like those moments on TV where the viewer could hear this loud, record scratch sound effect they used whenever one of the characters said something really stupid. "Uh, not that I'm gay or anything." Phoenix felt his face turn red, getting just as flustered as he did when a pretty girl flirted with him when he was a teenager. In a weird kind of way, Larry couldn't smiling at how cute his now normally collected friend was acting. "Forget I said that." Phoenix tried to regain his composure as if nothing happened.

"Gotcha." Larry suddenly went quiet, feeling almost a little disappointed. 

Phoenix's stomach turned into knots. _"This was going well_." God, even Edgeworth's murder trial was less stressful than this. Why couldn't he do anything right, let along remember anything else from that communication seminar?

Sensing his friend's discomfort, Larry turned to him. "Listen, you don't have to stay, if you don't want to."

"Oh, uh. Thanks." Sure it was a coward's way out, but it was the only option he could see. "You're sure you'll be ok?"

"I've been through worse."

"If you say so." He gave Larry a quick hug and showed himself the door. The rapidly building nervousness inside him faded as he heard his friend lock the door behind him only to be replaced with complete and other guilt. _"Stupid, stupid, stupid." _

+++

It was one of those moments where you just wanted to fall asleep and forget everything happened. Luckily for Larry, he had the talent to fall asleep at the drop of a hat. It just happened that the "drop of a hat" part was taking a little longer than usual. His mind just wouldn't shut-up over that stupid "I know I would be" comment Phoenix made. Maybe it was just a slip of the mouth and Phoenix was just scared he would think he was gay and get all uptight about it.

Then again, Phoenix knew good and well that he had nothing against gays (especially the female kind). Love\sincerity perhaps? Yeah right, he couldn't even attract a girl who wouldn't take advantage of him, what made him think Phoenix would want him. He tried to laugh at audacity of it, but he had to wonder, would it be such a bad thing as he finally fell asleep.

"Larry." A familiar voice called out while it's own knocked on the door, woke him up from his sleep a few hours later. Larry shot up from bed like a child on Christmas day and ran to the door; not caring if there was an axe-wielding maniac was hiding behind it.

"Kaley?" Kaley threw herself into Larry's arms, giving him a massive bear hug that seemed impossible for such a skinny girl like her.

"Thank God you're up."

"I had to be to answer the door." 

Kaley let go and busted up laughing. "Same old Larry."

"What are you doing here?" Was it just him or were all those Kleenex she stuffed in her bra to impress him that obvious?

"We're here to see you, silly."

"What do you mean, "we're?""

"Me and Larry Jr." She dug into her gym bag and took out a ceramic cat the size of a one gallon bucket and painted the same color as his hair, holding it out like a peace pipe. "Look, I'm really sorry for what I did. It wasn't cool." She gently placed Larry Jr. into his hands. "I thought we could bury the hatchet and at least be friends." He gave her a confused look. She seemed sincere enough, but then again, the memories of yesterday and the black eye hadn't completely gone away. "Please." She let her bottom lib quiver a bit, hoping it word work on him like it did with daddy and all her other boyfriends. "I'll let you have benefits."

"What about your boyfriend, what's-his-name?

"Michael. He's..."

"Kaley?" Michael's voice echoed through the apartment complex like church bells in the Grand Canyon.

"Oh God, it's him. Hide me." She ran into his apartment, nearly running Larry over.

"Kaley, wait." The whole place became silent like she wasn't even there. "Crap."

"Kaley!" Michael's voice boomed even louder. Although he never got really good look at Kaley's new boyfriend, Larry could feel his imagination running away from him with images of a Hulk Hogan-level brute of a man who could crush his skull like Larry did to those cats. Just as he got a horrible fantasy of Michael dangling him by his ankles from the nearest window, he felt a tapping of his shoulder that made him almost scream in terror. "Hey, relax. I'm just looking for Kaley."

Larry turned his head to see not the heavyweight bruiser of nightmares, but a normal man only slightly older than him that could probably compete for a cruiserweight title. There were no obscene tattoos, no scars, no crazy look in his eyes; so far, so good. Other than his jarhead haircut, there was nothing that really set him apart from any other guy than came and went in Larry's life.

"Kaley?" Even if Larry was sure he could at least get a few good hits in a fight with him, it didn't do a thing to ease his nervousness. "What makes you think she's here? You heard her; she doesn't want a thing to do with me."

"Yeah, but it didn't hurt to try. I just went into her PDA and found your address."

"I haven't seen her."

Michael's rugged face turned as sad as a child who didn't get anything for Christmas. "If you see her, tell her the wedding is still on."

"Wedding?"

"Yeah. You're invited if you want." Michael then walked off.

"Is he gone?" Kaley called from her hiding spot a few minutes after Michael left. Larry followed her voice to his bedroom which now had his dirty clothes thrown all over the place so Kaley could make room for herself in his clothes hamper.

"What about your wedding?" Larry said as he helped pull her out of the clothes hamper. God, she wouldn't even go to third base with him and now she's engaged to some guy she hardly knows.

Kaley rolled her eyes with an annoyed huff. "We're not engaged. I sleep with him for a second time and off he goes, calling his parents, telling them how their baby boy has found the woman of his dreams. Not that he's ugly or has a micro dick, but I can't handle that. I'm too young to get married."

"Yet you wouldn't even touch me."

"Larry, please." She sighed. "I didn't mean for it to happen this way. I thought I could do the whole chastity thing, but I can't. I just figured that I'd have one little fling to get it out of my system and go on with my life." She held up her hand, gesturing him to stop. "I know, I know. Why didn't I just fuck you instead? Well, you're different Larry. I wanted it to be special." She moved closer to him, stroking his face when they were only inches apart. "We can still make it special." She leaned in and kissed him with as much passion as she could muster. "Just think about it. I'll be on the couch if you need me."

"…." For once in his life, Larry was utterly speechless.


	3. Chapter 3

Just like it was for Larry, last night was far from peaceful for Phoenix. Instead of being thrown into an instant triangle with an old love and her marriage-obsessed boyfriend, it was the memories of that stupid little thing he said that made frequent visits to his head every time he had a chance to think clearly. So much that he insisted on Maya and Pearl to tell him everything they knew about channeling and not to spare any detail no matter how boring or unnecessary it may seem. It worked until it was Pearl's bedtime and Maya was feeling a little too tired to continue herself, but not before promising that she'd bone up on the subject and give Phoenix a full report the next weekend.

"Any girl would be lucky to have you. I know I'd be." Those same damn words bum-rushed his head the second the girls' chatter died down. Even turning in early wouldn't make it go away. Had it been this long since he got laid that he'd automatically start seeing his friends as fuckable? Like some close childhood friends of the same sex, both him and Larry had a moments where they indulged in a little mutual masturbation until Phoenix's mom accidentally walked in on them. Thankfully she opted to go the route in telling her son that it was better for him to keep his self-pleasuring to himself later that night than freak out and forbid the two from ever seeing each other again. None of the less, it sure stopped the both of them despite how much he enjoyed it at the time. Phoenix let out another frustrated groan and threw the covers over his head when that memory came back.

Or maybe it was something more? Despite all the trouble that Larry brought upon himself and almost everyone around him, he was always there when you needed him. He stood up for Phoenix when all those other kids ostracized him for stealing Edgeworth's lunch money, was the last minute saving grace in his case against von Karma, and still took the time to actually remember him and his two little assistants' birthdays. Then why was that when it came to love, it automatically made Larry its bitch? A caring, thoughtful guy like him didn't deserve the endless stream of ungrateful girlfriends that only used and threw him away when they grew bored with him. Lord knows he had to listen to Larry whine about each and every one of them the second they dumped him. It made him regret never giving Lotta Larry's phone number when they met at a book store and somehow managed to get her to reluctantly admit that she was there to get a book on how to pick up guys.

Still, there was something deep inside him that was kinda glad he didn't. There it went again. He was tired, that's what was making him think of those things. Yeah, that's it. All he needed was a little aid to help him fall asleep. So he rushed into the bathroom and took a huge swig of cold medicine, hoping it would finally shut his mind up.

"Come on, Mr. Nick." Pearl said the next day as she ran ahead of him as they went to the park.

"Uh, coming." Phoenix said, feeling the last remains of the cold medicine wear off as he tried to catch up with her while maintaining a conversation with Lotta on his cell phone.

"That's real sweet of yah an' all." Lotta said on the other end while some Hank Williams Jr. was cranked up a little too loud in background. "But ah already gotta man."

"You have?" He finally caught up with Pearl and nearly dropped the phone.

"His name's Will, he says he remembers yah."

"Oh yeah. The big guy." 

Lotta just giggled at the last part. "Yah don't know tha half of it."

"And I don't want to."

"Well I gotta get going. Good luck with yar friend."

Once again, Phoenix sighed, putting his phone in his pocket. He just hoped that Larry was doing better today.

"Hey Nick." Speak of the devil; there was the source of his late night angsting. As good as it did Phoenix's heart to see his friend back to his normal perky self, it was the familiar face and its owner who happened to be attached to Larry's arm that stopped any relief Phoenix was feeling.

"Miss Kaley." Pearl chirped.

"Hey there, Pearl." Kaley lowered herself until she was face to face with her. "How's it going?"

"I was going to skip some stones," Her voice turned almost shy as she held the lumpy-looking rock she just picked up. "But I'm not very good at it."

"That's because you're using rocks, not skip stones."

"There's a difference?"

"Duh, they're practically different species." She turned to Phoenix. "Say, you don't mind if I borrowed Pearl do you?"

"Go ahead, Larry and I need to talk." As soon as the two of them were out of listening range, he turned to his friend. "What the hell is going on?"

"It's cool."

"She punched you in the face, Larry."

"She apologized."

"Ok. I guess there's nothing wrong with you two being friends."

"Actually." Larry nervously scratched the back of his head. "We're dating again."

Never had the urge to bang his head against first hard surface he could find come so powerfully. "Dating?" It took every fiber of his being to keep from yelling at him. "What about her boyfriend?"

"Hey, calm down, Nick. And people say I spazz-out."

Phoenix sighed and shook his head. "So what does he think about this?"

"He doesn't know. Kaley figures that if she lays low long enough he'll lose interest and find some other girl to stuff all his creepy dreams of marriage on."

"Larry…"

"Come on, Nick." He put his hands on the side of his friend's arms. "Don't look at me that way. This might be my only chance."

"With a girl that's obviously using you?"

"Well I'm not complaining." He sighed. "Ever since Chinami tried to frame you for murder I promised myself that I'd never complain about whatever happens to me."

"I guess that makes sense." Phoenix quickly snapped out of his thought. "But you deserve better."

"Then where is she?" His grip on Phoenix's arms gradually became tighter with each word.

"Larry?"

"I've waited twenty-five years and what have I got to show for it? Constant rejection and the only one that could've cared for me dead before I had the chance to say good-bye."

"Larry."

Unknowingly, Larry began to shake him as his voice's volume nearly tripled. "I don't want to die some bitter, lonely virgin!"

"Larry!" His friend finally stopped. "You're hurting me and people are staring at you."

The combined stares of Kaley, Pearl, and everyone else in the park was more than enough to make him release his grip and back away. "Come on, Kaley. We're getting out of here."

"Ok-ay." She said, weirded-out by her boyfriend's outburst. "See you later, Pearl."

Pearl walked up to Phoenix and tugged on his sleeve. "Mr. Nick, what's a ver-jinn?"

"I'll tell you later, Pearls."

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

"You didn't answer my question Mr. Nick." Pearl said when she and Phoenix were at home, eating some of Maya's world famous grilled cheese sandwiches. "What is a ver-jinn?"

Maya stifled a laugh. Ignoring her, Phoenix tried to come up with the right words without warping her fragile little mind. "You know where babies come from, right Pearls?"

"Yeah," She said between bites of her sandwich. "Mommy told me everything. When a husband and wife love each other…"

"Uh, yeah. It's like that."

"Oh I get it. A virgin is someone who doesn't have any kids. Mr. Larry is lonely and he wants to have a family of his own."

"Sorta." 

Pearl smiled proudly. "So I'd be a virgin and so would Mystic Maya."

"Exactly." Maya said, amused with the whole conversation.

"And so would you, Mr. Nick." 

"According to your definition, I am." Phoenix couldn't help feeling a little weirded-out and not just because Maya was laughing.

"So Nick, what's really going on?" Maya asked, as she watched Phoenix load up dishwasher after lunch. 

"Nothing Maya."

"Don't play dumb with me. I know when you're hiding something from me."

"Do I have some psyche-locks on me or something?"

"No, I'm just that clever." Maya began to playfully wander around him with her hands hanging behind her back. "What could it be? Oh let me, guess. You're a woman trapped in a man's body." Phoenix nearly dropped a glass at her comment. "Just kidding. It's about Larry isn't it?" It took all of his resolve to keep the glass from slipping out of his hands for a second time. "Boy you're clumsy today, Nick." Gently taking the glass off of his hands, she motioned for him to move over so she could finish loading up the dish washer for him. As perfect of an opportunity as it would've been for him to run off, he was unable to. "Pearly told me everything about what happened at the park."

"I can't believe he went back to her." He sighed, leaning against the counter. "She's just going to dump him all over again."

"Maybe he doesn't know any better."

"Oh he does."

"I don't think so." Shutting the dishwasher with bump of her hip, she turned to Phoenix. "Love's been kicking his ass his entire life, that's all he knows." She propped herself up on so she was sitting next to him on the counter. "What he needs is a nice guy like you to set him straight."

"That's ridiculous. I'm just concerned for him, that's all."

"Are you Nick? Are you really? You've been acting pretty weird lately."

"Maybe I was just curious about channeling."

"Bull. I've seen this a hundred times before. You're obviously too enwrapped with your own macho labels to realize your feelings." Maya rushed into the bedroom she shared with Pearl and came back with an armful mangas that she dumped into Phoenix's arms. "Here, these mangas will clear everything up for you."

"Undergrand Hotel? Organic Sons? Wild Rock? Maya, this is gay smut."

"Hey, I resent that. This is high quality literature here. My pal Ema wouldn't send it to me it if weren't."

"Ema?" His mind flashed back to a certain brunette girl with an uncanny resemblance to his assistant. "Her last name wouldn't be Skye, would it?"

"Uh yeah. She's my e-mail pal. How do you know her?"

"She helped me on one of my cases while you were gone."

Maya gave out a small chuckle. "Small world." Her demeanor turned a little more serious as she turned to Phoenix. "But honestly, Nick, just think about what I said."

"I'll try."

She bowed than happily ran off. Ema just had to hear this.


	5. Chapter 5Slasher on the Roof

"Matchmaker. Matchmaker. Make me a match." Maya sang to herself as she activated her personal messenger, awaiting Ema's reply. "Buy me a buy. Catch me a catch. Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, don't know the rest of the song."

Ah, the wonders of modern technology. She patted herself on the back for convincing Phoenix to teach her how to use a computer after the Engarde trail. Even if she mainly used it to indulge into her new hobby instead of learning how to contact the police if she ever got kidnapped again. The funny thing was that the very idea of man-smut never crossed her mind until she came across a drawing of the Steel and Nickel Samurais banging the shit out of each other on an art site she stumbled across. At first she believed that the reason the picture stayed stuck in her mind for most of the night was because it was so graphic, but then realized it was more to the fact of how hot it was.

By the end of the week that image opened her up to a whole new world of wonder and into the arms of several yaoi groups and livejournals. It was on a Steel Samurai yaoi mailing list that she met Ema and the two hit it off almost famously. Over the last three months, they were already trading mangas.

SkyeGirl: I got your e-mail. Man, I can't believe you live with Mr. Wright.

MysticMaya: You should've told me.

SkyeGirl: Well, you never brought it up.

MysticMaya: So what do you think?

SkyeGirl: Larry's going to be the harder nut to crack. According to my mangas the straight guy usually needs some kind of big event involving his true love to turn him around.

MysticMaya: Like in Undergrand Hotel when Sword saved Sen from those rapists.

SkyeGirl: Right, we could hire some thugs to attack Larry and Mr. Wright will come save him before anything bad happens.

MysticMaya: I think that could get us arrested.

SkyeGirl: Dang. How about we just get them really drunk instead?

MysticMaya: I like it. After they realize how great the drunken sex was; they'll have no choice, but to get together. But how am I going to get the booze? Nick doesn't keep much around.

SkyeGirl: Leave that to me. I'll just send a message to Alice and she'll take care of it.

MysticMaya: Alice?

SkyeGirl: Alice Brady, she's a girl in my old school who can get kids fake IDs and stuff. I figured that since I'm going to be a forensic investigator it would be a good idea to get some ties with the criminal underground to help me out in my future cases. I'll send you her address when we're done.

MysticMaya: Thanks.

SkyeGirl: Remember to take lots of pictures.

MysticMaya: I will.

Maya giggled as she shut off her internet connection.

"Maya, is it just me or does this tea smell weird?" Phoenix said the next day as he sat across from her on the kitchen table.

"It's uh, a new brand, Magic Tea."

He gave her that same look whenever she "accidentally" ordered more food than she promised. "What do you have planned Maya?"

"Nothing. You work so hard and I thought that I'd help you relax." She quickly checked the clock on the wall. "So I sent Pearly to bed early and made you a little treat." He made a bitter-looking face when the nasty combination of instant tea and whatever she threw in there hit his tongue. "Hey, slow down Nick. Save some for our guest."

"What guest?"

"Oh nobody."

"Maya…"

"Ok," She huffed. "Larry should be coming in few minutes. I figured you two could get together and sort out your differences."

"And this has nothing to do with trying to get us together?"

"Of course not." A rapid succession of knocks filled the air as she jumped from her seat, grabbed his wrist and nearly dragged him along with her. "Oh, there he is."

"Ni…Nick, thank God…you're here." Larry tried to say between the heavy wheezing that resulted from running almost the entire way to his apartment.

"Larry, what happened to you?" Throwing his arm around his friend, Phoenix lead him to the kitchen. Maya was about to hand Larry the cup of tea she until Phoenix gestured her not to and pointed to the sink.

Ignoring her grumbling as she fished for a glass, he waited for Larry to catch his breath. Man, he hadn't looked this bad since he burst through the court room during Edgeworth's trial and despite the knotting in his stomach of what possible disaster Larry could've brought with him, he prayed to himself that it was just a product of overreaction.

"It's Kaley." Larry finally said when he finally calmed down and took a huge sip of water. "They think she killed him."


End file.
